If you regularly chair your own meetings, you’ll know how difficult it is to not only run and contribute but also manage the people in the room. 

Using an independent facilitator can free you up to focus on the content and ultimately make your meetings more productive.

Meeting facilitation is a service we are increasingly asked for so we thought it would be useful to share with you some of the benefits our clients have experienced.

An independent meeting facilitator, as someone who isn’t emotionally connected to either the content being discussed or the people in the room, is able to:-
1. Stop things going off track by managing the ‘parking lot’ – the list of items agreed to be discussed at a later date. Also, summarising a point and bringing the discussion back to the original item.

2. Ask the dumb question as someone independent of the team and with limited or no knowledge of the content.  This can either be sensitive questions others might be reluctant to ask or alternatively, questions no one else would have thought of because they are so steeped in the detail they have lost the ability to see the ‘big picture’.

3. Encourage the more reluctant (either through shyness or disengagement) members of the team  by watching body language and noticing what people don’t say as well as what they do.

4. Summarise effectively, taking all views in to account – we can all be guilty of selective hearing and if you are emotionally connected to the content, you are more likely to ‘hear’ the views you agree with and filter out those you disagree with. Using a facilitator gives a better chance of summaries being an accurate reflection of views around the table.

5. Leave others to focus on the content, ensuring that the meeting is managed effectively. This means the obvious things like making sure everyone’s views are aired and taken in to account, keeping time, sticking to the agenda and allocating ownership for action items. Also some less obvious, but equally, if not more important, things such as managing personality clashes, power struggles or those with hidden agendas.

6. Challenge the views of the leader in a way that other team members may be reluctant to do.

7. Give independent feedback after the meeting, perhaps pointing out things others may not have seen and suggesting changes.

8. Mediate discussions between different personality types who might otherwise ‘clash’

Having an independent person to facilitate meetings can free up your time and energies as a leader to focus on the task in hand. This in turn means more efficient and productive meetings and ultimately, more profit.

Until next time.

Allison

As a manager, passing on what you know is something you do every day but what skills do you need to develop to be an effective mentor and is it possible to be someone’s mentor as well as their manager?

A mentor is a guide who can assist and help navigate someone to learn faster and more effectively than they might do alone.

Mentors encourage and support.

They use their own skills, experience and useful contacts, to direct and advise their mentee in ways that will help with their short or long term objectives.

There are many benefits to acting as a mentor but to be truly effective, mentors should build skills in key areas.

Key mentoring skills and habits

Firstly, a good mentor can recognize and maintain confidentiality and boundaries, especially avoiding drifting in to areas that might be more suitable for say, counselling.

They can listen well, are able to ask challenging, insightful questions and also, know when to give the mentee space to work out problems for themselves, helping them develop quicker.

Finally, they are able to maintain emotional distance and understand the importance of tracking and measuring success.

Before you agree to work together with someone, make sure the chemistry is right.

Clear agreement is vital at the beginning of the relationship so that the mentee understands what they will get out of it.

And that’s not just about what they SAY they want.

Part of the mentor’s job is to challenge in a constructive way what the other person says.

So if the mentor thinks the expectations of what can be achieved are unrealistic, or, conversely, the mentor thinks they can add something the mentee hasn’t thought of, they should include that in the discussion.

Be very clear about boundaries and confidentiality. If you have a relationship, business or otherwise, outside of the mentoring relationship, what happens then?

One of the keys to a successful mentoring relationship is to have an independent viewpoint which can be very difficult to do if you are the person’s line manager.

A mentee might hold back from saying something to their mentor if that person is also their line manager. And there may be power or authority issues in a manager/employee relationship which don’t translate well when you introduce an element of mentoring.

There is no greater way of appreciating what you know than by passing information on to others and there can be a great deal of satisfaction in seeing your client progress in their development and grow in confidence.

From the mentee’s perspective, the opportunity to have a confidential space in which to try out new ideas, be stretched and challenged, get positive acknowledgement of ideas and action and be introduced to useful new contacts – all from someone who has ‘been there and done that’ – can be not only invaluable, but life changing.

Mentoring relationships can be very rewarding for both parties. Understanding – and addressing – some of the common pitfalls before you start can only enhance the experience.

“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves”  Steven Spielberg

These provide employees’ views on working life.

Overall job satisfaction and work life balance is improving and whilst that sounds great, if you dig a little bit deeper, some less encouraging statistics are revealed.

So those working in Micro Businesses feel more engaged and satisfied with their jobs.

And whilst job satisfaction is improving in both large and small businesses, there has been a much bigger improvement in smaller businesses since Spring 2014.

When assessing engagement, factors taken in to account include:-

• Having confidence in senior managers
• Work life balance
• Satisfaction with line managers
• Being prepared to go the extra mile
• Satisfaction with role
• Understanding and being motivated by the organisation’s purpose
• Positive relationships with colleagues

Just under half of employees feel they are not kept informed about what is happening and are not likely to recommend their organisation to others.

And almost 40% of people feel under excessive pressure at work at least once per week.

So what does all of this tell us?

Despite the investments that organisations continue to make on training and getting people engaged, around half of employees still don’t understand what is expected of them and don’t feel well informed.

I think it also tells us that our old friend communication seems to be at the root of many issues.

And that the easiest way to get job satisfaction is to work in an organisation employing less than 10 people!

It strikes me that communication is so much easier in smaller businesses and I suspect this is the reason people who work in them are more satisfied.

Does your experience back this up? We’d love to hear from you.

Until next time

Most of us know that the more positive our atitude, the more we get out of life.

But does being positive mean we have to walk around with big smiles on our faces and saying ‘Have a Nice Day’ to everyone we meet?

Even if we don’t feel like it?

The academics of Positive Psychology say not.

Positive Psychology is the scientific study of what makes life worth living and their research has broken down positive emotions in to ten different types – looking at how each make us feel and act.

Ten Positive Emotions

Joy is when things are going well. It makes you playful and helps you build skills.

Gratitude is when you receive something you perceive as a gift. It makes you want to ‘pay it forward’ – give gifts to others – and develops your relationship skills.

Serenity is when you feel safe and sure and don’t have to make too much of an effort. It is something you savour and helps you see the world in a more favourable light.

Interest is when you experience novelty and mystery. It makes you want to explore and helps you develop knowledge and energy.

Hope is when you fear the worst but yearn for better. It makes you inventive and develops your resilience.

Pride is something you feel when you achieve something. It makes you dream big and want to go on to further achievement.

Amusement is when you share laughter and insights with others. It helps you build friendships and creativity.

Inspiration is something you feel when you see human excellence. It makes you aspire to excellence yourself, helping you build skills and morality.

Awe is when you are overwhelmed with greatness. It helps you absorb new things and see yourself as part of a bigger picture.

Love is the all-encompassing positive emotion and helps build bonds, trust, community and health.

So next time you think, either in business or in life, you may benefit from a more positive outlook, give some thought to which specific area might work best for you at that particular time.

Until next time.

Allison

Transformational leadership is about building lasting behavioural changes – changes that will transform not only your team but your business and possibly also you.
“It’s the end of the world said the caterpillar.
No it’s just the beginning said the butterfly.”
Unknown
Because so much of the success of a modern business is about leading and managing change, so a leader’s role is increasingly focused on changing the behaviours of their teams (sometimes as well as their own).

In the past, for a leader to be successful, it may have been enough for them to operate a simple reward and punishment system, such as bonuses or prizes for tasks completed – what’s known as transactional leadership.

But no longer. In today’s fast moving, complex business environment, for a business to achieve their goals and maximise the potential of their employees, a leader needs to be able to change and transform people’s behaviour – to influence them in a way that they achieve more than what is usually expected of them.

This transformational style of leadership is not only about long term behavioural change but also about aligning the beliefs and values of the team with the goals of the business.

Behaviours of a transformational leader
So what sort of things would you be doing and saying if you were to become a transformational leader and what impact might that have on your team and your business?

Some of the most important things are:-
involving your team in the business planning process

motivating – by communicating and giving feedback on their role in achieving goals

encouraging ownership – by creating an environment which supports creativity and innovation

role modelling – ie demonstrating the behaviour you want to see in others

attending to the needs and motives of others – give each member of your team some individual time and tailor the type and level of support they require as individuals

promoting collaborative working – to encourage focus on the greater good rather than individual needs

influencing through composed, reasoned argument

And the impact of adopting this approach?

You will develop a team which feels empowered and able to make decisions without your involvement every time; you will be confident those decisions are being made in line with the goals of your business.

And your time will be freed up to focus on areas you consider to be important, whether that is working out how to take your business to the next level, spending more time with customers or identifying new opportunities.

In short, transformational leadership will produce greater results as it focuses on long term behavioural changes rather than (or ideally, as well as) short term task completion.

Until next time.

Allison

A modern leader is expected to demonstrate a degree of emotional intelligence in getting the best out of his or her team. But exactly what does that mean and why should leaders build this skill?
“The reality of the other person lies not in what he reveals to you, but what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says, but rather to what he does not say” Khalil Gibran

Emotional intelligence is partly about good communication.

If you want to communicate really well with your team – and a team can never be truly high performing unless the communication is top class – then you need to consider things other than the words being used – things such as body language, tone of voice as well as the words which are there but are just NOT being said.

But communicating well is only one part of emotional intelligence – Wikipedia describes it as ‘the capacity to be aware of, control and express emotions and to handle inter personal relationships judiciously and empathetically’.

So as well as managing relationships, being able to read emotions and understanding the impact your communication has on others, it’s also about managing your own emotional state and and most importantly, having a good degree of self awareness.

Developing your emotional intelligence muscles
How you go about developing your emotional intelligence will depend on what comes naturally to you and what doesn’t – your strengths and weaknesses.

Some of the more common areas I come across with my clients include:-

Finding it difficult to bounce back from setbacks – in which case, ask yourself, ‘what is the lesson here?’ or ‘how important will this be in six weeks, six months or six years?’

Struggling to express difficult emotions – try the ‘when this, I feel’ structure.

For example, ‘when you produce inaccurate and late reports, I feel disappointed and frustrated’

Or if you find it difficult to read emotions in others – ask the other person the question ‘I’m making an assumption about how you are feeling about this, can I just check?’

These are just a few tips to help with some of the most common areas – if you would like help or support in identifying and working on building YOUR emotional intelligence, why not click on the website link below and book in to our online diary for a free 30 minute consultation.

Until next time.

Allison

And recently I came across an example of something more subtle which had a profound impact on the working of a team and demonstrated very well how checking understanding and asking for clarification ultimately leads to better productivity and improved profits.

I have been working with a team who wanted to develop their communication skills. Part of that was encouraging each other to speak up when they didn’t understand and then supporting each other to find how things needed to change to improve their understanding.

Stephen did exactly that. He said – ‘I’m not sure I’m following this. In fact, this often happens to me in these meetings. I’m ok up to a point then I just don’t get it. It just feels all over the place.’

There was bit of eye rolling from some of his colleagues but we persevered with the process we agreed and asked:-

‘So what needs to change so that you understand things better?’

He thought for a while and said ‘Well if we could see a summary of the points being made every now and again, that would help’

Another team member agreed to do this and after a short period, listed the first summary on a board. Stephen nodded and ‘thumbs upped’ his agreement.

Stephen’s way of processing information is visual, structured and linear so a list of points really helped him.

His boss who chaired the meetings spoke and thought in a more unstructured way so it was just about finding a solution which suited them both.

Regularly summarising the points gave us the expected result – better understanding for Stephen.

But there was an added benefit.

As the summary was produced, a couple of others around the table expressed surprise. They thought they had understood but now they saw the summarised points, realised their assumptions had been incorrect and as a result, were getting better understanding themselves.

And as a result of that the meeting took on a whole new direction, with new ideas and challenges popping up all over the place.

And those challenges and new ideas resulted in identifying better and more productive ways of working.

A change designed to help one team member who knew he was having difficulty also helped other members of the team who thought they understood.

So if you would like to communicate well with with others in a way that will link directly to an increase in productivity, it is always worth checking understanding and assumptions by:-

• Encouraging openness so that people feel safe to challenge or ask for clarification

• Identifying the preferred thinking style of those you are communicating with and tailor your communication accordingly.

If you have any opinions, ideas or experiences about how developing communication skills helps improve productivity, please share them, we would love to hear from you.

Power is about the potential to influence – so where does the balance of power lie in the relationship between leaders and their teams and why does it matter?
The measure of a man is what he does with power. –Plato

A topic which often comes up with my clients is power. Some feel that protective legislation puts the balance of power firmly with employees.

Others, through our sessions, come to see that the negative behaviours in their team have actually been as a result of their own misuse of power.

Richard, for instance, complained about one of his team who persistently kept information from him. He talked to another, trusted, member of his team and discovered that people were put off telling him things because of his reputation for reacting badly to anything he didn’t want to hear.

Once he saw that he was part of the problem, he was able to change his behaviour and get his team to open up more.
Good and Bad Uses of Power
As a leader you are in a unique position of being able to give rewards and punishment – potentially you have the power (even allowing for legislation designed to protect the rights of employees) to withdraw a person’s livelihood at a moment’s notice.

So the starting point in this relationship is an imbalance in favour of the leader – and it is the responsibility of the leader to ensure power is used correctly – for the benefit of you, your team and the business.

So how do you know when power is being used in a good or bad way?

If it’s being used in a negative way you see a leader using coercion – either expressly or implied; not working with their team but working in their own interests and not giving their team choices.

The best use of power is where it is completely unnoticeable. Your relationships and influence over your team are such that they want to work with you. And they ask you when they can see your involvement would be beneficial.

So how can you positively use your unique position of power to get the best out of your team?

A good starting point is to build solid relationships so that you can be as open as possible with each other – demonstrating trust and delegating effectively.

There is also a link to emotional intelligence – take note of what people are saying and doing in response to your words and actions to understand the impact they have.

And being a positive role model is the best way of demonstrating the behaviour you would like to see in others.

How have YOU managed the power balance with your team – I’d love to hear.

Until next time.

Allison

Most appreciate the benefits of regular one to ones but cite daily operational pressures as the reason they have slipped or even stopped.

Too much work, not enough staff or impending deadlines have us looking around for ways to save time. Deferring or even ditching one to ones can seem like an obvious first measure but in my experience, having regular one to ones can really keep your team and your business on track.

So what problems are we creating if we DON’T have regular one to ones and how can we prevent them from slipping?

BENEFITS OF REGULAR ONE TO ONES

1. Team members feel valued and heard. This is THEIR time and you value them enough to dedicate a specific period just for them.

2. Expectations managed on both sides. You have an opportunity to talk about what’s coming up and what part you would like them to play in that. They have an opportunity to tell you what’s coming up for them, either career aspirations or things in their personal lives which might impact their time or commitment.

3. An early warning system for brewing problems. Something which may seem not quite right but not worth mentioning – either from a people or business side – can blow up in our faces when we least expect it and usually at the most inconvenient time. Dealing with them during one to ones can often nip things in the bud.

4. Fewer interruptions to day to day working. Issues and topics which need discussing will crop up during normal working time and if not urgent, can be kept for your one to ones.

KEEPING TO A REGULAR SCHEDULE OF ONE TO ONES

1. Give plenty of notice and set regular times which don’t clash with busy periods.  Fridays at 4pm when things are winding down for the weekend or early mornings before the office gets busy.

2. Combine with other activities so that no core time is taken away from day to day work. Do you have a regular meeting you drive to together which could be used for your one to ones? Or could you take them out to lunch?

3. No surprises. Adopt a ‘no surprises’ approach to running your business/team by having tried and tested processes and procedures in place. The smoother your operation is running, the fewer crises you will have to deal with that get in the way of one to ones.

4. Standard agenda. Have a core agenda so that everyone knows what to expect. This might include such things as:-
   1. What’s on your mind at the moment?
   2. What’s on my mind?
   3. What’s really bugging you and what would you like to do about it?
   4. What are you enjoying and how can we do more of it?

Regular one to ones are little drivers of positivity which can help keep us on the right track, maximise satisfaction and ultimately, productivity in our teams.

If you have experience of the benefits of one to ones and how you keep on track with them, we’d love to hear from you. Of if you would like help in getting the most out of your one to ones, contact us for an informal chat on 07551303835 or email allison@macintoshwright.co.uk.

It can be too easy to focus on our errors rather than the value of the lessons we learn from them. But in the wise words of Oscar Wilde ‘Experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes’
For a number of unconnected reasons over the last few weeks I’ve met up or been in touch with a handful of ex colleagues – more specifically, people who have worked in teams I’ve run.

One recently retired and spending her first few months catching up with old workmates.

One I bumped into whilst out with my granddaughter and she with her toddler. Another looking for advice in deciding on a couple of job offers. And yet another a lunch date after six months of trying to find a time that suited us both.

It’s been lovely finding out what they’re all doing now and bringing each other up to date on contacts we have in common.

We also talked about projects we worked on together and I noticed that some of our memories of the same events differed.

Different Perspectives
We each saw things from our own perspective, and I began to see a pattern. The things we remembered MOST differently were events I considered personal ‘mistakes’.

I remembered them more vividly because they had a bright light of self judgment shining on them.

These things had bitten hard at the time and it was only after a period of reflection I saw how I might have handled things better.

But of course I had to make the mistakes to learn the lessons.

And in my time of running teams, these mistakes have served me well because I learned from them and rarely made the same mistake twice.

So if you’re currently beating yourself up for a mistake you’ve made, think of yourself as the Leaning Tower of Pisa where what started off as an imperfection eventually became a source of wonder.

Until next time.

Allison